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Sunday, June 3, 2007

Just Ahead of Knollman is Christopher Hickey and Cabana Boy

Another person aiming for Verden is the one other rider sitting at the top with Knollman and that’s Christopher Hickey. He and Cabana Boy, a Hanoverian gelding by Contucci out of Britania and owned by Hilltop Farm, finished the preliminary test in the Markel Five-Year-Old competition with a score of 82.40 percent, just ahead of Knollman. The next closest rider to Knollman and Hickey is Teresa Butta with the Oldenburg gelding Froelich (by Festrausch). Their preliminary score was 73.80.

Asked if he’d go to Verden if invited, Hickey gave a quick “yes.” “I have no idea of our chances. It’s still a few more months away, but this horse has progressed so much in the last month and a half and I foresee another good jump in the next month and a half.”

Cabana Boy is by a Hilltop stallion and when he arrived in the world it was clear he was a top-quality foal. So, Hilltop Farm bought him. Hickey has only had the ride on the young horse for a bit more than a month. The Raleigh show is only their second together. “I did a show last weekend to get a qualifying score and this is the second time I’ve ever shown him,” Hickey said.

Fortunately, Hickey found the horse to be an easy ride. “He’s a wonderful, smooth horse to ride. He has nice, big, expressive, smooth gaits,” he said. He has no doubt Cabana Boy will be a successful FEI horse and the judges seem to agree. They had much to like about the young horse that Hickey calls “a bit devilish. He’s a little bit into everything.”